Posts Tagged ‘General Motors’

‘Cash for Guzzlers’ Is Gaining a lot of Attention!

September 13th, 2009

If you have been driving around a gas guzzler for years and have not been able to give it up for the simple reason that you would not get any return on it, those days are over now.  The $1 billion federal ‘Cash for Guzzlers’ program is in full swing and it is a program that is helping people trade in their gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient cars and trucks.  The program will pay upwards of $4,500 in credit to swap out the aging and gas guzzling car from under you and replace it with a better car or truck all around.

The program itself was signed into law by the President himself in June and the outline of it is: if you own a car that was built after 1984 with the miles per gallon of about 18, you can apply for this credit and trade-in bonus to be added on whenever you are shopping for a new car.  This law applies to SUVs, vans and pickup trucks.

When you go to a dealership with your gas guzzler, participating dealerships will assess your vehicle and apply the discount to a new vehicle and then the dealership will obtain a reimbursement from the government.  If you are looking for more details on this particular program, they are posted all over the internet.  Just a quick search and you should be able to find them.

This program was designed to help people get themselves into new cars/trucks and hopefully to help people buy cars and trucks again.  There is some hope out there that we will top our goal of selling about two hundred and fifty thousand vehicles this year and this particular program is something that should help it along.

People nowadays are constantly looking for a new way to help the environment, as many eco-friendly and hybrid cars are being designed and this is a great way to ensure that everyone is able to get one of these fantastic eco-friendly cars.  Hybrids are some of the most popular cars on the market and while they are affordable for the most part, some people would prefer to trade in their car and get a decent chunk of money off of the car – that is possible now via this program.

“It’s a wonderful program. It helps out the environment, it helps out the customer, and it gives a jump to the automobile industry when it needs it the most,” said Scott Gruwell, sales director of Courtesy Chevrolet, the Phoenix-based GM dealership that sold Metzler his Equinox.

Cliff Johnson, president of Texas Motors Ford, agreed “Are we excited about it? Absolutely! We think it is a great opportunity for people to get rid of their clunkers,” said Johnson, whose dealership in Fort Worth has about 250 vehicles on its parking lot.

Dealerships all over the world are welcoming this particular program in with open arms and it is one closing tool and selling tool that they have been using since it first went into law in June.  While of course, there are still some dealerships that are in limbo about this particular program, overall – the program has went over extremely well with people and constantly, dealers are selling up the perks of the program to any consumer looking to trade in their car for a more fuel-efficient car.

One of the major complaints that dealerships are having is the fact that their reimbursements are taking too long.  People are waiting months for their reimbursements and while every good program has some kinks, this is one thing that is holding some dealerships back from offering up and taking the program.  While most dealerships do not have a problem, it is only the select few that seem to be having issues.

No comments »

Posted in Car manufactures, Chevrolet, GM, General News

Tags:

Another 6,000 Down The Drain

August 15th, 2009

With the New GM coming back with aggressiveness and a will to live – it is not all that hard to believe that the latest buyout from GM cost them another 6,000 United States workers.  This buyout was intended to make the company leaner and meaner – after all, they do not want to go into bankruptcy again do they?  GM, which we all know exited bankruptcy on July 10th and they intend to stay that way from here on out – hence the reasoning for the buyout in the first place.

The new GM is actually looking to shred it’s employee base down to about 40,500 by the end of 2009 through more buyouts, layoffs as well as other measures.  The cuts are going to add to the thousands that are currently unemployed and while the unemployment rates all over keeps growing and growing, GM is looking out for themselves it seems like.

Since about 2006, roughly sixty-six thousand United States workers, which is more than half of the factory worker jobs have left GM by means of buyouts and retirement packages.  The automaker is constantly looking for ways to cut costs and trim down the fat and cutting their workers loose.  All of this is to counteract the slow sales and the mounting losses that they are constantly receiving by employing workers for no production.

While the company seems to be concentrating their efforts on the blue-collar section of their factories – that is just how it seems, it is not actually the case, the company is actually cutting down their white-collar jobs as well by about 20 percent which equals out to be about six thousand more jobs.  Executive ranks will also be cut by another thirty five percent by the end of this year.

What a lot of people do not know about GM is that they have actually lost, since 2008 about thirty-one billion dollars and has taken a total loss of about eighty-two billion dollars in the last four years.  While it might have been ranked the top automotive producer in years before, it seems that Toyota is actually out ranking them now as Toyota sales are up and GM sales are way, way down.

GM, in the long run has always been a fantastic company to work for and has always been a company that people have been proud to work for, however, since the old GM has fallen and the new GM has taken over, it seems that jobs are becoming less and less – no matter if they are blue-collar or white.  No one in the world of GM seems to be safe and that is something that is sad.

Diana Tramblay, the GM VP of Labor Relations states: One of the very tough, but necessary actions to position the company for long-term viability and success is to reduce our total U.S. workforce, both hourly and salaried employees.”  In a recent interview and while they may be thinking about the future of GM and just what it can truly bring – what about right now?  Many people are wondering about that very question themselves.

GM is looking to restructure the way that they have been running things in the past and they are looking to update everything about the company itself and how decisions are made.  Committees are being formed and everything seems to be run by the government when it comes to the GM world right now.  However – that does not mean that the new GM is going to be a bad thing, right now, it is just different and people are losing their jobs – whether by taking the buyout or by ‘other measures’.

No comments »

Posted in Car manufactures, GM, General News

Tags:

The ‘New GM’ Is Coming Back Leaner and Meaner

July 12th, 2009

General Motors exited bankruptcy on July 10th, 2009 with a ‘leaner and meaner’ look that is ready to come back and fight for the American’s trust and pay back all of the taxpayers.  This is a new company we are talking about, no longer is GM the oldest and best company to work for, this is a brand new company with brand new rules and a brand new look.

There are a deal signed the morning of July 10th, 2009 between the government and General Motors executives at the law from of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, which is GM’s chief bankruptcy counsel.  The CEO has to say: “Today marks a new beginning for General Motors, one that will allow every employee, including me, to get back to the business of designing, building and selling great cars and trucks and serving the needs of our customers,” CEO Fritz Henderson said in a statement on July 10th, 2009.

He has appreciated all of the support that GM fans and taxpayers have given them and while it might be a very hard road to earn back all of that trust, GM is willing to restructure the way they do things and really live up to the new GM name.  There are plans of GM releasing 10 new vehicles in the United States and another 17 vehicles outside of the United States in the next eighteen months, which is good news.

The GM management structure that is based on the Automotive Strategy Board, which is all made up of Global Function Leaders and Regional Presidents and its Automotive Product Board will be replaced with a single and smaller-scale executive committee that will meet every single week.

This particular committee will focus on all of the business results brands, customers, products and overall – how much profit GM is going to be making.  This smaller-scale committee will cut GM’s decision-making team in half and will eliminate a lot of GM’s matrix structure and while these are difficult decisions, they are ones that have to be made in order to really improve the company overall.

GM’s bankruptcy only lasted about thirty-nine days, but within those days, things were very uncertain and now GM has closed the deal on selling off some key components of the GM Company, such as Chevrolet and Cadillac to a new company that is mostly owned by the United States Treasury.

GM will also be cutting at its white-collar workforce as well, which is exactly what everyone seems to think it needs to do.  They are cutting back on their white-collar labor by about 20 percent, which means eliminating another six thousand jobs by October.  The reduction of the executives in rank will slice a lot deeper than most people anticipated.

Another pillar that GM is planning on launching and developing is more fuel-efficient cars and they are going to focus their energy on just a few brands and models – along with a couple of dealerships instead of expanding until they are stretched too thin.  That is exactly what happened here, they stretched themselves too thin for too long and now they have been burned by about $40 billion dollars with potential losses of over $80 billion dollars.

There is news however that the new GM will be slashing their debt and healthcare obligations by about $48 billion dollars and that they have dropped almost 40 percent of their dealerships that are unprofitable.  Brands like Saturn, Hummer and Saab are being cut loose and sold to other companies.  The new GM is really taking the time to cut unnecessary things out of their company and that is something that will help them in the long run.

No comments »

Posted in Car manufactures, General News

Tags: